Fifth Patrol
Warden Light, requesting permission to start gathering potential recruits for the city watch.
[Private to Self]
Just what the hell do you think you're doing, Sam? This isn't your city.This isn't your job, and you don't have a leg to stand on with these people. Oh, sure, it's smaller than Ankh-Morpork, and a lot cleaner and more cultured, and there's no damned diplomacy with other countries to worry about..
But why's that got to be your problem? You should be working on how to get home, get back to Sybil and Young Sam and not flinch every time the clock ticks past six o'clock..
And gods damn but the hand keeps hurting. Dwarves..
But who'll watch this Light character, make sure he's doing it right? He's not a policeman, he's Authority, he's not walked a beat. And that's all well and good, he's got dreams, but it takes more than dreaming about something to make it work. And people get hurt every day.
Well, yes, they do, and somehow, somehow they come back. Explain that one again to me, won't you? In a city where no one stays dead, where there's no laws, no ruling body, and everyone and his mother's carrying around a gonne...no, a gun, they call it here...where is there room for a bloody police force? How can you keep the peace in this place where there was probably no peace to begin with?
And I don't even think I want to know what's going on back home. Carrot's a good man in charge, but he's too bloody obvious. He doesn't fight dirty, in a city that practically requires it as a survival trait.
...Do the job that's in front of you.
This city's in just as rough a shape. And that Major. War-mongering lunatic. He'll be watching. So will a lot of other people. No one really likes law; they like the idea of it, right up until they find themselves on the wrong side of it. And there'll always be the murderers, the crazies, the thieves in the night, the kidnappers and the nightmares and the monsters and the Dark.
...The Dark's a copper's best friend. You use it, you learn to stare into it and not flinch. The Dark ought to be afraid of you, not the other way around.
Right. Right now, there's no law. That makes our organization, Warden Light's organization just a bunch of well-meaning thugs who can lock you up if you don't do right.
But that's got to change. You've seen it change.
This city's far from lost, not while there's still a few good men to look to, not let you down, and do the job as best they know how.
Walter, thanks for letting me stay until I could get back on my feet around here. It's about time I stopped imposing on you now that there's a job that needs doing, so I'll vacate later this afternoon. Send me a bill to let me know what I owe you and I'll pay it back.
[Private to Self]
Just what the hell do you think you're doing, Sam? This isn't your city.This isn't your job, and you don't have a leg to stand on with these people. Oh, sure, it's smaller than Ankh-Morpork, and a lot cleaner and more cultured, and there's no damned diplomacy with other countries to worry about..
But why's that got to be your problem? You should be working on how to get home, get back to Sybil and Young Sam and not flinch every time the clock ticks past six o'clock..
And gods damn but the hand keeps hurting. Dwarves..
But who'll watch this Light character, make sure he's doing it right? He's not a policeman, he's Authority, he's not walked a beat. And that's all well and good, he's got dreams, but it takes more than dreaming about something to make it work. And people get hurt every day.
Well, yes, they do, and somehow, somehow they come back. Explain that one again to me, won't you? In a city where no one stays dead, where there's no laws, no ruling body, and everyone and his mother's carrying around a gonne...no, a gun, they call it here...where is there room for a bloody police force? How can you keep the peace in this place where there was probably no peace to begin with?
And I don't even think I want to know what's going on back home. Carrot's a good man in charge, but he's too bloody obvious. He doesn't fight dirty, in a city that practically requires it as a survival trait.
...Do the job that's in front of you.
This city's in just as rough a shape. And that Major. War-mongering lunatic. He'll be watching. So will a lot of other people. No one really likes law; they like the idea of it, right up until they find themselves on the wrong side of it. And there'll always be the murderers, the crazies, the thieves in the night, the kidnappers and the nightmares and the monsters and the Dark.
...The Dark's a copper's best friend. You use it, you learn to stare into it and not flinch. The Dark ought to be afraid of you, not the other way around.
Right. Right now, there's no law. That makes our organization, Warden Light's organization just a bunch of well-meaning thugs who can lock you up if you don't do right.
But that's got to change. You've seen it change.
This city's far from lost, not while there's still a few good men to look to, not let you down, and do the job as best they know how.
Walter, thanks for letting me stay until I could get back on my feet around here. It's about time I stopped imposing on you now that there's a job that needs doing, so I'll vacate later this afternoon. Send me a bill to let me know what I owe you and I'll pay it back.